House texting-driving ban ready for a floor vote

Florida may finally join nearly every other state in the country in banning drivers from texting.

A bill (HB 13) prohibiting texting while driving — which failed to gain even a hearing in the House last year — cleared another significant legislative hurdle in the House on Wednesday, setting up a floor vote on the legislation.

Thus far in five committee hearings in the House and Senate the texting ban has only garnered one negative vote. That came Wednesday when House Economic Affairs Committee backed the bill in a 16-1 vote, with chairman Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, voting against the bill. Patronis said he was afraid the legislation was “creating another reason why we have more government intruding into our lives.”

The vote was a major victory for Rep. Doug Holder, R-Venice, who has been waging a campaign for the legislation for the last five years.

Answering an array of questions from the House panel, Holder said the legislation is aimed at a cultural shift in thinking by making it clear to younger drivers that texting while driving is illegal. He also said he hoped that public acceptance of the ban and technology advances would make the ban irrelevant in the next decade.

“This is what we need in Florida,” Holder said. “It starts the campaign that tells our children, that tells our parents that texting while driving is an inappropriate behavior and is illegal in Florida.”

Holder also noted that Florida remains only one of five states without any type of driving and texting prohibition. He also said studies have shown texting while driving can be more of an impairment for drivers than operating a vehicle at the legal limit of intoxication.

“Today the statistics are big enough, the message is important enough for us to pass a bill like this into law and save lives in Florida,” Holder said.

While the House bill next moves to the floor, a Senate bill (HB 52), sponsored by Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, will be heard Monday in the Senate Judiciary Committee — its last committee stop before a floor vote.

Both the House and Senate bills make texting and driving a “secondary” driving offense, meaning a driver would have to be pulled over for another reason before he or she could be charged with a violation.

First-time violators would face a $30 fine plus court costs, while a second offense within five years would bring a $60 fine plus court costs.

Lloyd Dunkelberger

Lloyd Dunkelberger is the Htpolitics.com Capital Bureau Chief.
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Last modified: April 3, 2013
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